Opinion + Malcolm Gladwell | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+books/malcolm-gladwell
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Four more New York Times columnists and Malcolm Gladwell get really high: what could possibly go wrong? | Sarah Jeonghttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/04/new-york-times-columnists-harsh-our-mellow
<p>Maureen Dowd is off today, recovering</p><p>Reminds me of the last time I visited Thailand. What a country! What a place! Full of life, and moisture, like this brownie. Kids these days don't eat brownies like we used to in the old days. The brownies of our time were unicycles. These brownies are <i>tricycles</i>. But tricycles are obsolete. Or are they? </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/04/new-york-times-columnists-harsh-our-mellow">Continue reading...</a>New York TimesDrugsMalcolm GladwellCannabisComedyUS press and publishingNewspapersWed, 04 Jun 2014 21:25:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/04/new-york-times-columnists-harsh-our-mellowPhotograph: DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative CommonsA cartoon of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and his eyes Photograph: DonkeyHotey/Flickr via Creative CommonsPhotograph: DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative CommonsA cartoon of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and his eyes Photograph: DonkeyHotey/Flickr via Creative CommonsSarah Jeong2014-06-04T21:25:10ZStephen Fry meets Malcolm Gladwell - video interviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/oct/24/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-video-interview
Stephen Fry let slip to the Guardian that he wanted to interview the author Malcolm Gladwell, so <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/18/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-questions">we arranged for them to meet</a>. The duo discuss dyslexia among CEOs, bipolarity among high-fliers, how adversity creates character – and Gladwell answers questions from Comment is free readers<br /><br /><strong>Malcolm Gladwell's new book on how underdogs sometimes succeed, David and Goliath, is published by Allen Lane. He will be live in London on 28 Oct (with special guests The Staves), Liverpool on 30 Oct and Dublin on 1 Nov. More details <a href="http://www.malcolmgladwell-live.com/">here</a></strong> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/oct/24/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-video-interview">Continue reading...</a>Malcolm GladwellBooksStephen FryCultureThu, 24 Oct 2013 10:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/oct/24/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-video-interviewPhotograph: Dan Ramirez/GuardianMalcolm Gladwell and Stephen Fry Photograph: Dan Ramirez for the GuardianPhotograph: Dan Ramirez/GuardianMalcolm Gladwell and Stephen Fry Photograph: Dan Ramirez for the GuardianDan Ramirez2013-10-24T10:30:00ZStephen Fry meets Malcolm Gladwell: the questions you want him to askhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/18/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-questions
Tell us what you'd most like to know from the author of David and Goliath and The Tipping Point, and we'll get one of our favourite polymaths to ask him<p>When Stephen Fry told us that he wanted to interview the US-based author and thinker Malcolm Gladwell, we couldn't resist the opportunity to arrange a meeting of these great minds.</p><p>Since the American publication of The Tipping Point in 2000, Gladwell's influence on literature, popular psychology and beyond has been immense. His <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/28/blessed-weak-underdogs-malcolm-gladwell" title="">latest book, David and Goliath</a>, on the subject of underdogs and overcoming adversity, is already causing quite a stir.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/18/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-questions">Continue reading...</a>Malcolm GladwellStephen FryCultureBooksFri, 18 Oct 2013 10:36:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/18/stephen-fry-malcolm-gladwell-questionsPhotograph: Tim Knox/GuardianMalcolm Gladwell has agreed to be interviewed by Stephen Fry for the Guardian. Photograph: Tim Knox for the GuardianPhotograph: Tim Knox/GuardianMalcolm Gladwell has agreed to be interviewed by Stephen Fry for the Guardian. Photograph: Tim Knox for the GuardianGuardian Staff2013-10-18T10:36:44ZSorry, Malcolm Gladwell, the revolution may well be tweeted | Leo Miranihttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/02/malcolm-gladwell-social-networking-kashmir
Malcolm Gladwell is wrong about the poor revolutionary power of social networking, as the tweeters in Kashmir show<p>For a man who has devoted a significant part of his life to <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0349113467" title="Amazon: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference">documenting</a> "how little things can make a big difference", Malcolm Gladwell is surprisingly dismissive of the power of social networking to effect change. In the latest issue of the New Yorker, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all" title="New Yorker: 'Small change: why the revolution will not be tweeted">he writes</a> that the role played by Facebook and Twitter in recent protests and revolutions has been greatly exaggerated.</p><p>Gladwell's argument is that social networks encourage a lazy activism that will only extend as far as "liking" a cause but not actually doing anything about it. This is because social networks are built around weak ties, where real activism needs strong bonds. Citing the American example, he points out that "events in the early 1960s became a civil-rights war that engulfed the South for the rest of the decade – and it happened without email, texting, Facebook, or Twitter."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/02/malcolm-gladwell-social-networking-kashmir">Continue reading...</a>TwitterSocial networkingSocial mediaMediaInternetTechnologyMalcolm GladwellKashmirWorld newsProtestUS newsSat, 02 Oct 2010 09:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/02/malcolm-gladwell-social-networking-kashmirPhotograph: Dar Yasin/APKashmir protesters are using social media to disseminate news and views. Photograph: Dar Yasin/APPhotograph: Dar Yasin/APKashmir protesters are using social media to disseminate news and views. Photograph: Dar Yasin/APLeo Mirani2010-10-02T09:00:00ZTo Kill a Mockingbird: the backlash | Hadley Freemanhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/29/to-kill-a-mockingbird-backlash
The backlash against Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is as inevitable as it is stupid. It's payback for her being so reclusive<p>Hey, England soccerball fans, turn those frowns upside down! This summer isn't a total washout. Sure your boys might have lost both their pants and their game thingummyjig but the best is yet to come, something that will absolutely have you rehanging your bunting, repainting your cheek and rechanting those songs that rely more on slurred sentiment than coherent lyrics. You know what I'm talking about: it's the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird! High five, boys, don't leave me hanging!</p><p>More than 50 vuvuzela-free anniversary celebrations are scheduled across the US this 11 July for Harper Lee's glorious tale about a young girl named Scout, her father Atticus Finch and a creepy neighbour called Boo Radley. From such oddly named seeds, true flowers bloom, a moral that those of us with similarly strange names find deeply heartening.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/29/to-kill-a-mockingbird-backlash">Continue reading...</a>CultureBooksHarper LeeMail on SundayMalcolm GladwellUS televisionSteve CarellTue, 29 Jun 2010 19:30:29 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/29/to-kill-a-mockingbird-backlashPhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext/UIMary Badham and Gregory Peck in the 1962 film of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/UIPhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext/UIMary Badham and Gregory Peck in the 1962 film of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/UIHadley Freeman2010-06-29T19:30:29ZThe trouble with Twitter | James Harkinhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/29/trouble-twitter-social-networking-banality
Far from delivering a 'wisdom of crowds', social networking sites have created only a deafening banality<p>In 2003, in an elaborate joke on New York's media-savvy, empty-headed hipsters, a journalist called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob" title="Bill Wasik">Bill Wasik</a> sent around an anonymous email suggesting that they congregate at a department store at the same time and stare at a rug. The event was an enormous success, and became the world's first documented example of a "flash mob". By the end of the decade, however, the joke had turned sour, and was on all of us. Faced with any kind of group activity, our first&nbsp;response is: do any of them know how to use Twitter?</p><p>How did we get here? In the last decade, ideas about how society works have been treated to a glamorous new outing. It all began in the year 2000, with the publication of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/malcolm-gladwell" title="Malcolm Gladwell">Malcolm Gladwell</a>'s beautifully crafted bestseller The Tipping Point. Gladwell argued that, given the right kind of push, ideas or products can suddenly gain traction and pass around from person to person like a virus. In its wake came a slew of new thinking about how information and ideas cascade around the place and gather momentum. Then there was the influential idea that we can raise ourselves to a kind of collective intelligence – the so-called "wisdom of crowds" – by arriving at our decisions independently and punching our best guesses into a computer.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/29/trouble-twitter-social-networking-banality">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyComputer science and ITFacebookTwitterInternetBusinessRage Against the MachineMusicIranMoldovaBelarusMalcolm GladwellWorld newsBooksGordon BrownPoliticsEuropeTue, 29 Dec 2009 21:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/29/trouble-twitter-social-networking-banalityJames Harkin2009-12-29T21:00:01ZGender has no place on the sporting agenda | Carole Cadwalladrhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/aug/23/womens-athletics-caster-semenya
Sport is one area of modern life where women's appearance isn't supposed to matter<p> </p><p>I can't claim to know what it's like to win a world championship and have my gender questioned before a global audience, or to have news articles devoted to the subject of my genitalia, or my figure evaluated by a cross-section of fellow athletes, but on the other hand I did go to a Cardiff comprehensive school. And if you think the <em>Sun</em> can be cruel, hang out with teenagers from Tongwynlais sometime.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/aug/23/womens-athletics-caster-semenya">Continue reading...</a>Caster SemenyaGenderAthleticsSportSimon CowellThe X FactorMediaBooksPoliticsMalcolm GladwellWorld newsCultureMusic TVEntertainmentTelevisionTelevision & radioSat, 22 Aug 2009 23:10:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/aug/23/womens-athletics-caster-semenyaCarole Cadwalladr2009-08-22T23:10:04ZEditorial: In praise of ... Malcolm Gladwellhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/22/leaders-and-reply-malcolm-gladwell
<p>On Monday evening, a skinny former business journalist with a towering afro will wander out on the West End stage that normally hosts the Lion King musical and talk to two sold-out audiences totalling 4,000. He will not be delivering a comedy routine or the teachings of the Gospel, but a talk based on his new book, about genius. And if experience is any guide it will be brilliant. That is Malcolm Gladwell's role: to do stuff that should not work, and somehow pull it off. He gets hired by the Washington Post to report on business and science - and writes a 3,000-word piece about a dog on death row. The Howl of the Doomed's closing quote really is "Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof" - and yet it is a classic. He addresses business conferences but wields no PowerPoint, discussing instead the search for the perfect pasta sauce. And he writes books, about trainers and policemen and dullard prodigies. They sell by the palletload while being elegantly written and stimulating to read. Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain. He reads medical and psychological journals, as well as books on rice cultivation and Jeb Bush, and uses their findings to send a theoretical charge through his reporting. Critics jibe that he plays up his contrarianism, while playing down the political context of his subjects - and they have a point. But popularising big ideas is one of journalism's lesser-populated fields, and Gladwell shows that it can be immense fun.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/22/leaders-and-reply-malcolm-gladwell">Continue reading...</a>Malcolm GladwellBooksNewspapers & magazinesMediaCultureSat, 22 Nov 2008 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/22/leaders-and-reply-malcolm-gladwellEditorial2008-11-22T00:01:00Z